Live: Eyehategod

NOLA sludgers return to the scene of the grime

Maybe it’s because it’s too soon after Temples and Desertfest, but there are only a handful in attendance to witness nihilistic, Brighton-based sludge-punk troupe WAR WOLF [7] play their final ever show.

Thankfully, by the time local stoner stalwarts SLABDRAGGER [7] emerge there are several more bodies crammed into the downstairs venue – although the band have to work hard to drag ’em closer to the stage.

The trio still clearly revel in their ‘comic book doom’, but by the looks and sounds of them tonight, that comic book is less Justice League and more Maus. Frequently rather derivative on record, instrumental, ganja-guzzling, Polish doom-o-nauts BELZEBONG [8] are a revelation live. Maybe it’s the heat, maybe it’s the fact that the quartet are bathed in smoke and green lights but tonight they look and sound massive.

With EYEHATEGOD [8] having run through town as recently as late April, tonight’s show could feel like overkill – a fact acknowledged by frontman Mike ‘IX’ Williams – but unlike most bands, no two EHG shows are quite the same – a point proved when he later announces “We don’t have a setlist,” before the band stagger into a rabid New Orleans Is The New Vietnam, and continue to tear the venue apart. Again.

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